Faculty Book: Jonathan E. Adler

Jonathan E. Adler and Lance Rips

Reasoning: Human Inference and its Foundations
(Cambridge University Press, 2008)

This interdisciplinary work is a collection of major essays on reasoning: deductive, inductive, abductive, belief revision, defeasible (non-monotonic), cross cultural, conversational, and argumentative. They are each oriented toward contemporary empirical studies. The book focuses on foundational issues, including paradoxes, fallacies, and debates about the nature of rationality, the traditional modes of reasoning, as well as counterfactual and causal reasoning. It also includes chapters on the interface between reasoning and other forms of thought. In general, this last set of essays represents growth points in reasoning research, drawing connections to pragmatics, cross-cultural studies, emotion, and evolution. Jonathan Adler is a professor of philosophy at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center.